The present invention relates to a technology for overcoming language problems in translation, interpretation and so on, for information exchanges and/or information storage. More particularly, the present invention relates to a language conversion technology, which is suitable for information exchanges and information storage performed in computers, networks and so on and which can be applied to machine translation, machine interpretation and so on.
Today in the Internet age, people""s activities have been spread internationally. During international activities, communication is the most important. Accordingly, difference in language is an important matter. However, a perfect global common language does not exist at the present time. Even widely-used English cannot be the global common language. In fact, people belong to various language zones, and each of them desires communication by using his/her native language.
Currently, in order to achieve the communication between different languages, translation between these languages is necessary. In some cases, another language which can be translated from both languages must lie between. Translation generally relies on human power. Alternatively, translation software has been developed for some languages, and machine translation may be performed therefor.
In fact, conventional translation software analyzes a construction and a meaning of a sentence written in a certain language. Then, words to be translated into are used to rewrite elements of the sentence according to the grammar thereof. Therefore, perfect translation is significantly difficult to achieve. Even the translation between very similar languages can hardly reach to 100%.
Human beings create information expressed in languages under various conditions in various fields such as reporting, transaction, literature, and entertainment regardless of their used languages. Information written in a language is generally stored individually in each form such as printed form, digital data form, or the like in the language the information is originally written. The information may be translated into a different language and may be stored in translated form as well. Therefore, having the same content information may be stored in each different language. This cannot be considered efficient way in the network age. Especially, when the content is changed, not only the original text must be changed but also the changed part must be translated in all of the translated text. Accordingly, it is not efficient way either in view of document management.
In general, information originally written in one language is not translated into a different language in many cases. Especially, it is rare to translate it into many languages. Therefore, exchanges of information between people using different languages are naturally limited.
Under this condition it is desirable to develop a system that can achieve communication among people using various kinds of languages easily and accurately with small cost. Further, it is desired to accumulate information independent of a specific language and to convert the information into a desired language as necessary.
One of the objectives of the present invention to provide a system for creating representation in universal language, whereby communication among various kinds of language can be achieved easily and accurately with small costs. Another objective of the present invention to provide a recording medium for recording rewriting rules used therefor.
In order to achieve the objective, according to a first aspect of the present invention, it is provided a system for creating representation in universal language, which can be handled by a computer and on which conversion to the other language can be based, comprising a conversion rule portion for, corresponding to at least one kind of natural language, storing rewriting rules which are referred to for converting representation in natural language to representation in universal language and a conversion processing portion for converting representation in given natural language to representation in universal language by referring to the rewriting rules stored in the conversion rule portion, wherein the conversion rule portion has, as the rewriting rules, a universal language dictionary for defining natural language elements constructing natural language by universal language elements constructing universal language, which correspond to information that each of natural language elements has, and rewriting rules for stipulating a join relation between the universal language elements arranged in accordance with a sentence construction in natural language and for representing the join relation in a binary relation including two universal words and a relation indicating that they have a certain relation, and wherein the conversion processing portion performs processing for rewriting components constructing the natural language representation of the representation in given natural language to universal language elements corresponding thereto in the universal language dictionary with reference to the universal language dictionary and processing for joining multiple rewritten universal language elements by applying the rewriting rules in accordance with an order in universal language element and for creating representation in universal language, which is represented in the binary relation, in accordance with a rule for representation in the binary relation.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, it is provided a recording medium for recording a rewriting rule compliant with at least one kind of natural language, which is referred to for mutually enconverting between representation in the natural language and representation in universal language, which can be handled by a computer, the rewriting rule has a universal language dictionary for defining natural language elements constructing natural language by universal language elements constructing universal language, which correspond to information that each of natural language elements has, and rewriting rules for stipulating a joint relation between the universal language elements arranged in accordance with a sentence construction in natural language and for representing the join relation in a binary relation including two universal words and a relation indicating that they have a certain relation.